PRESENTATION TO THE REV FATHER CLEARY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11808, 10 August 1900, Page 8

PRESENTATION TO THE REV FATHER CLEARY.

A number of gentlemen assembled in St. Joseph's Hall, R&ttray street, last evening for the purpose of making a presentation to the Key. Father Cleai-y, editor o£ the Tablet.

The Key. Father Murphy, who was voted to the chair, said that some two months ago a .meeting iiad been held in that buiiding, when it was uecided that some recognition should be made oJ: the services of the able editor of the New Zealand Tablet since he took that office. The result'was that the principal members of the Catholic Church in Dunedin were communicated with, and the outcome of their efforts was that they were able that 'evening to present i'ather Cleary with a purse containing some 270 sovereigns. The speaker added that in connection with the movement he had received letters from all over New Zealand, which afforded proof that the journalistic labours of i'ather Cleaxy were appreciated from the Blurf to Auckland. —(Loud applause.) The Key. leather Murphy having read a letter from MiMartin Kennedy, of Wellington, ?.s giving an idea of the character oi the letters he had received, called upon Mr j. B. LhlUiu io make the presentation. Mr Callau referred to the pleasure he felt at being given an opportunity of expressing his sense of appreciation of the. services rendered by Father Cieary. The good results of his work as editor of the Tablet had been felt all over the colony. Unfortunately, his health was not as robust as could be desired, and it was understood he contemplated taking a trip to Australia. They hoped that tho presentation would enable him to enjoy his trip all the more, and that he would return to New Zealand to take up his editorial duties with renewed health and vigour.—(Loud applause.) The speaker then handed Father Cleary a purse containing 245 sovereigns. Mr 0. Mailow, on behalf of the Hibernian Society, presented tho Tablet editor with a purse containing some 30 sovereigns, and in doing so said that the society started its "purse" before it was aware the other movement was afoot, otherwise it would have been glad to co-operats with those who had initiated that movement. The speaker, in making the presentation, eulogised the journalistic work ,of Father Cleary, and the able manner in which ho filled the editor's chair of the New Zealand Tablet.

The Rev. Father Cleary, in rising to acknowledge the presentation, was received with prolonged applause. He regretted he could not lay the flattering unction to his soul that he deserved the high encomiums addressed to him by the speakers that evening. On the contrary, he regretfully admitted that they had greatly over-esti-mated the value of the lervices rendered by him to Catholic journalism in Now Zealand.— (Cries of " No."). In this matter he had the good fortune to be inheritor of the results of the pioneer work done by others who had gone before him. When Sir Henry Lawrence lay dying of his wounds in the Residency of Lucknow in 1857, baffled and defeated in one of the dearest objects of his life, he said to those who stood sorrowing around him, " I have tried to do my duty.' Now, that was all the speaker could lay claim to—not that he had succeeded in attaining to the full discharge of the high duties of a Catholic journalist, but that he had niada an honest effort to do so.—(Loud applause.) He felt gratified by that demonstration of goodwill on other than personal grounds. He regarded it as an evidence of strong consciousness on their part of the great work which Catholic journalism could do in these colonies as an auxiliary to the work of tho church. —(Applause.) A Catholic editor like himself might be by natural temperament and acquired habit, a man of peace, but higher interests at limes demanded that he should become, so to speak, a mild typo of the fighting editor—that he should represent in his person the church militant, and, descending to the battlefield with tho weapons of truth, do battle with falsehood and calumny.—(Loud applause.) It had been the duty of tho Tablet to refute calumny, and while he had always endeavoured to make a full and (air defence, at the same lime ho never unjustly injured the reasonable sensibilities of any fair and manly opponent.—(Applause.) Tho proceedings, which were characterised by much enthusiasm, closed with a vote of thanks to the chair.

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